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About Valentine Democrat. (Valentine, Neb.) 1900-1930 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 27, 1900)
f I l lr 1 V 15he Bondmacn By HALL CAINE A i Continued Story Ly 4qq But I still had another duty and touched by the pathos of that timeless death I set about it with new vigor This was to learn if the unhappy soul had left a child behind her and it she had done so to look for it as 1 had Looked for its mother and succor it as I would have succored her I found that she had left a son a lad of my own age or thereabouts and therefore less than twenty at that time Little seemed to be known about him save that he bad been his mothers sole stay and companion that they had both lived apart from their neighbors anc much under tne shadow of their distress At her death he had been with her and he had stood by her grave but never afterwards had he been seen by any one who could make a guess as to what had become of him But whilst I was still In the midst of my search the body of a young man came ashore on the island of Engy and though the features were no longer to oe recognized yet there were many in the fishing quarter of this city who could swear from evidences of stat ure and of clothing to its identity with him I looked for and thus the second chapter of my quest seemed to close at a tomb I cannot say that I was fully sat isfied for nothing that I had heard of the boys character seemed to agree with any thought of suicide and I noticed that the good old Lutheran priest who had sat with the poor mother in her last hour shoo his head at the mention of it though he would give no reasons for his deter mined unbelief But perhaps my zeal was flagging for my search ceased from that hour and as often since as my conscience has reproached me with a mission unfulfilled I have appeased it with the assurance that mother and son are both gone and death itself has been my sure abridge ment Some day dear Greeba I will tell you who sent me which you may partly guess and who they were to whom I was net But it is like the way of the world itself that having set ourselves a task we must follow it as regularly as the sun rises and sets and the day comes and the night follows for once letting it slip it will drop into chaos For a thing hap pened just at that moment of my wavering which altered the current of my life so that my time here which was to be devoted to an unselfish work seems to have been given up to personal ambitions I have mentioned that the good woman had been the daughter of the Governor General His name was Jor gon Jorgensen He had turned her adrift- because of her marriage which was in defiance of his wish and through all the years of her poverty he had either abandoned her to her necessities or her pride had hidden them from his knowledge But he had heard of her death when it came to pass and by that time his stubborn spirit had begun to feel the lonesome ness of his years and that life was slipping past him without the love and tenderness of a child to sweeten it So partly out of remorse but mainly out of selfishness he had set out to find the son whom his daughter had left behind her thinking to give the boy the rightful place of a grand son by his side It was then that on the same search our paths converged and Jorgen Jorgensen met with me and I with Jorgen Jorgensen And when the news reached Reykjavik of the body that had come out of the sea at Engy the Governor was among the first to give credence to the ru mor that the son of his daughter was dead Bul meantime he had found something in me to interest him and now he asked who I was and what and why I was come His questions I answered plainly without conceal ment or any disguise and when he heard that I was the son of Stephen Orry though he knew too well what my father had been to him and his daughter all of which dear Greeba you shall yet learn at length he asked me to take that place in his house that he had intended for his daughters son How I came to agree to this wbile I distrusted him and almost feared him would take too long to tell Only remember that I was in a country for eign to me though it was my fathers home that I was trifling with my er rand there and had no solid business of life beside Enough for the present that I did so agree and that I became the housemate and daily companion of Jorgen Jorgensen His treatment of fme varied with his moods which were many Sometimes it was harsh sometimes almost genial and always selfish I think I worked for him as a loyal servant should taking no ac count of his promises and never shut ting my eyes to my true position or his real aims in having me And often and again when I remembered all that we both knew of what had gone be fore I thought the Fates themselves must shrink at the turn of fortunes -wheel that had thrown this man and me together so I say he was selfish and truly he did all he could in years I was with Lim to drain me of my best strength of heart and brain but some of his selfish ends seemed to lie in the way of my own advancement Thus he had set his mind on my succeeding him in the governorship or at least becoming Speaker and to that end ie had me elected to Althing a legislative body very like to the House of Keys Vio lating thereby more than one regula tion touching my age nationality and period of residence in Iceland There he made his first great error in our relation for while I was servant in his house and office my mind and wfil were his but when I became a delegate they became my own in charge for thejpeople who elected me sIt would be a long story to tell you all that occurred In the three years thereater how I saw many a doubtful scheme hatched under my eyes without having the power or right to protest while I was kept under the shelter of the Governors roof how I left his house and separated from him supported by good men who gathered about me how he slandered and maligned and injured me through my father whom all had known and my mother of whom I myself had told him how in the end he prompted the Danish government to pro pose to Althing a new constitution -for Iceland curtailing her ancient lib erties and violating her time honored customs and how I led the opposition to this unworthy project and defeated it The end of all is that within these two months Iceland has risen against the rule of Denmark as administered by Jorgen Jorgensen driving him away and that I who little thought to sit in his place even in the days when he himself was plotting to put me there and would have fled from the danger of pushing from his stool the man whose bread I had eaten am at this moment president of a new Icelandic republic It will seem to you a strange cli max that I am where I am after so short a life here coming as a youth and a stranger only four years ago without a livelihood and with little money though more I might perhaps have had on a vague errand scarcely able to speak the language of the peo ple and understanding it merely from the uncertain memories of childhood And if above the pleasures of a true patriotism for I am an Icelander too proud of the old country and its all but thousand years there is a secret joy in my cup of fortune the sweetest part of it is that there are those there is one in dear little Elian Van nan who will I truly think rejoice with me and be glad But I am too closely beset by the anxieties that have come with my success to give much thought to its vanities Thus in this first lull after the storm of our revolu tion I have to be busy with many ac tive preparations Jorgen Jorgensen has gone to Copenhagen where he will surely incite tne Danish Govern ment to reprisals though a powerful State might well afford to leave to its freedom the ancient little nation that lives on a great rock of the frozen seas In view of this uncertainty I have to organize some native forces of defence both on land and sea One small colony of Danish colonists who took the side of the Danish powers has had to put me down by force and I have removed the political prisoners from the jail af Reykjavik where they did no good to the sulphur mines at Krisuvik where they are opening an industry that should enrich the State So you see that my hands are full of anxious labor and that my presence here seems necessary now But if as sanguine minds predict all comes out well in the end and Denmark leaves us to ourselves or the powers of Eur ope rise against Denmark and Iceland remains a free nation I will not for get that my true home is in the dear little island of the Irish sea and that good souls are there who remember me and would welcome me and that one of them was my dear little play fellow long ago And now dear Greeba you know what has happened to me since we parted on that sweet night at the gate of Lague but I know nothing of all that has occurred to you My neglect has been well punished by my ignorance and my many fears How is your father Is the dear man well and happy and prosperous He must be so or surely there is no Providence dispensing justice in this world Are you well To me the years have sent a tawny beard and a woeful lan tern jaw Have they changed you greatly Yet how can you answer such a question Only say that you are well and have been always well and I will know the rest dear Greeba that the four years past have only done what the preceeding eight years did in ripening the bloom of the sweetest womanhood in softening the dark light of the most glorious eyes and in smoothing the dimples of the loveliest face that ever the sun of heaven shone upon But thinking of this and trying to summon up a vision of you as you must be now it serves me right that I am tortured by fears I dare not utter What have you been doing all this time Have you made any new friends I have made many yet none that seem to have got as close to me as the old ones are One old friend the oldest I can remember though young enough for beauty and sweet grace is still the closest to my heart Do you know whom I mean Greeba do you remember your promise You could hardly speak to make it I had forgotten my manners so that I had left you little breath Have you for gotten To me it is a delicious mem ory and if it is not a painful one to you then all is well with both of us But oh for the time to come when many a similar promise and many a like breach of manners will wipe away the thought of this one I am almost in love with myself to think it was I who stood with you by the bridge at Lague to kiss the lips that kissed you Ill do better than that some day What say you But say nothing for thats best dearest Ah Greeba At this point there was a break in the letter and what came after wa in a larger loose and more rapid handwriting Your letter has this moment reached me I am overwhelmed by the bad news you send me Your father has not yet come Did his ship sail for Reykjavik Or was it for Hanaf jord Certainly it may have put in at the Orkneys or the Faroes But if it sailed a fortnight before you wrote it ought to be here now I will make inquiries forthwith I interrupted my letter to send a boat down the ford to look It is gone I can see it now skirting the Smoky Harbor on its way to the Smoky Point If your father comes back with it he shall have a thousand thousand welcomes The dear good man how well I remember- that on the day I parted from him he rallied me on my fears and said he would yet come here to see me Little did he think to come like this And the worst of his misfortunes have followed on his generosities Such big hearted men should have a store like the wid ows cruse to draw from that would grow no less however often they dipped into it Good keep him till we meet again and I hold once more that hand of charity and blessing or have it resting on my head I am anxious on your account also dear Greeba for I know too well what your condition must be in your moth- ers house My dear girl forgive me for what I send you with this letter The day I left the island your father lent me fifty pounds and now I repay it to his daughter So it is not a gift and if it were you should still take It from me seeing there are no obli gations among those who love To be Continued Female Hermits Women are seldom hermits but the story is told of two women mother and daughter who lived in Akron O a life of seclusion For sixteen years no neighbor darkened their door and they never wandered beyond the limits of their yard The Bishops Anti Pin Order The bishop of Liverpool has Issued a new code of rules for confirmation He desires that girls should refrain from the use of long pins in the hair as the presence Ci such pins frequently results in jne bishops fingers being lacerated during the laying on of hands A Fireman Who Starts Fires In Waltham Mass an employe of the city fire department is under arrest charged with arson It is asserted that he started a blaze in the fire house in which his company was stationed and afterward turned in an alarm to summon aid in extinguishing- the flames What Lis motive was is un known So Fascinatingly Bad New York is delightfully shocked at the wit wisdom and wickedness of Pi neros comedy The -Gay Lord Quex just brought over Its great scene is a polite example of fhat is known in po lice circles as the badger game There are no sliding panels no exchange of money now show of force or violence but it is a badger game for all that and New York has gone wild over it New Yorks Bernhardt Craze Long lines of Bernhardt Coquelin New York admirers or their messenger boys stood patiently in a drizzling rain Tuesday for the chance to get an early choice of single seats for that en gagement The subscription sale was a success two five seat boxes netting 1000 each and many blocks of the outside seats sold for the entire forty performances Fancy prices were paid without a murmur Castle Was an Old Convent The castle in which Oswald uAur mene a Belgian artist has offered Mr Kruger a home was built by monks 309 years ago as a convent It has had a varied career a former owner having entertained royalty in it and was bought only a few years ago by M dAurmene who is wealthy and re stored all the old splendor besides in stituting all modern conveniences and comforts Greek Professor a Private Soldier Dr Henry C Bunn professor of Greek and English literature in St Johns military school at Manlius N Y has enlisted as a private in the Twenty third regiment United States infantry now at Manila This is Prof Bunns third attempt to join the regular army He is a son of Rev A B Bunn D D rector of the Church Charity foundation in the diocese of Long Island Harvard Men from Everywhere Harvards cosmopolitanism is well il lustrated in the latest catalogue whicu shows that her students are drawn from no less than thirty nine of the forty five states as well as from Ari zona Oklahoma and the District of Columbia Hawaii Porto Rico the Philippines Cuba Japan the Canad ian provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Kamchatka Great Britain France Germany Spain Russia Bul garia and Norway An Experts Opinion Prof N S Saler of Harvard univer sity a southern man who has made a special scientific study of the condi tion of the negroes of the south gives no favor to the pessimistic opinions that come from that section He thinks that me moral and intellect ual condition of the negroes is im proving and so far as- social morals are concerned he -regards the negro as on the whole less dangerous than whites of a like social grade Brewers Bonanza Days Over A leading representative of the brewing interest says that the days of fortune making in the brewing business have passed and that the large breweries now fail to return a fair percentage on the money invested in them His explanation of his statement is that there has been a great falling off in the saloon trade where the profits are largest and a corresponding increase in the home or bottled trade where the profits are not so large The No Door Story Nonsensical Frank Sanborn take3 to task Rebec ca Harding Davis because of her arti cle in the November Scribners in which she gives some recollections of a visit to Concord forty years ago and tells about the summer house built by Alcott for Emerson and which con tained no door This statement is de nounced as pure nonsense by Mr San born who says the house has a door and a big one which he has often entered and which has been sketched by artists 4K3M5seN33S eQ4 15he Bondmat By HALL CAINE A Continued Story 3xH33M3KSxSy3x3 The duties that hold me here are now for the first time irksome for I am longing for the chance of hasten ing to your side But only say that I may do so with your consent and all that goes with it and I will not lose a day more in sending a trustworthy person to you who shall bring you here to rejoin your father and me Write me by the first ship that will bring your letter I shall not rest until I have heard from you and having heard in such words as my heart could wish I shall not sleep until you are fwith me never never to be parted from me again as long as life itself shall last Write dearest girlwrite write write Here there was another break in the letter and then came this postscript It Is part of the penalty of life in these northern lands that for nearlr one half of the year we are entirely cut off from intercourse with the rest of the world and are at the mercy of wind and sea for that benefit during the other half My letter has waitett these seven days for the passing of a storm before the ship that is to carry it can sail This interval has seen the return of the sloop that I sent down the fiord as far as Smoky Point but no tidings has she brought back of the vessel your father sailed in and no certain intelligence has yet reached me from any other quarter So let me not alarm you when I add that a report has come to Reykjavik by a whaler on the seas under Snaefell that an Iriish schooner has lately been wrecked near the mouth of some basaltic caves by Stappen all hands being saved but the vessel gone to pieces and crew and passengers trying to make their way to the capital overland I am afraid to fear and as much afraid to hope that this may have been the ship that brought your father but I am fitting out an expedition to go along the coast to meet the poor ship broken company for whoever they are they can know little of the perils and privations of a long tramp across this desolate country If more and better news should come my way you shall have it in its turn but meantime be think you earnestly whether it is not now for you to come and to join me and your father also if he should then be here and if not to help me to search for him But it Is barely just to you to ask so much without making myself clear though truly you must have guessed my meaning Then dear Greeba when I say Come I mean Come to be my wife It sounds cold to say it so and such a plea is not the one my heart has cherished for through all these years I have heard myself whisper that dear word through trembling lips with a lumin ous vision of my own face in your beautiful eyes before me But that is not to be save in an aftermath of love if you will only let the future bring it So dearest love my darling more to me than place and power and all the world can give come to me come come come CHAPTER V STRONG KNOTS OF LOVE Now never did a letter bring more contrary feelings to man or maid than this one of Michael Sunlocks brought to Greeba It thrilled ner with love it terrified her with fear it touched her with delight it chilled her with despair it made her laugh it made her weep she kissed it with quiver ing lips she dropped it from trembling fingers But in the end it swept her heart and soul away with it as it must have swept away the heart and soul of any maiden who ever loved and ishe leaped at the thought that she must go to Sunlocks and to her father at once without delay not waiting to write or for the messenger that was to come Yet the cooler moment followed when she remembered Jason She was pledged to him she had given him her promise and if she broke her word she would break his heart But Sunlocks Sunlocks Sunlocks She could hear his low passionate voice in the words of his letter Jason she had loved for his love of her but Sunlocks she had loved of her love alone What was she to do Go to Sun locks and thereby break her word and the heart of Jason or abide by Jason and break her own heart and the hope of Sunlocks Oh she thought if the letter had but come a day earlier one little day nay one hour one little little hour Then in her tortured mind she reproached Jason for keeping It back from her by his forgetfulnessJ and at the nex instant she reproached Sunlocks for his tardy despatch and last of all sne reproached herself for not waiting for it Oh she thought -was ever a girl born to bring such misery to those who love her All the long night thereafter she tossed in restless doubt never once closing her eyes in sleep and at day dawn she rose and dressed and threw open her window and cool waves of morning air floated down upon her from the mountains where the bald crown of Barrule was tipped with rosy light from the sun that was rising over the sea Then in the stillness of the morning before the cattle in the meadows- had begun to low or the sheep on the Mils to bleat and there was yet no noise of work in the rick yard or the shippon and all the moor land below lay asleep under its thin coverlet of mist there came to her from across the fields the sound of a happy cheery voice that was singing She listened and knew that it was Jason chanting a song of Iceland after a night spent on the mountains and she looked and saw that he was coming on towards the house with his long swinging stride and leap over gorse and cushag and hedge and ditch It was more than she could bear alter such night long torment to look upon the happiness she seemed about to wreck so she turned her head away and covered her ears with her hands But recking nothing of this Jason came on singing in snatches and whistling by turns until his firm tread echoed in the paved courtyard in the silence that was broken by nothing beside except the wakening of the rooks in the elms She must be awake for she lies there and her window is open he thought to himself Whisht he cried tossing up a hand And then without moving from where she stood with her back resting against the window shutter she turned her head about and her eyes aslant and saw him beneath her -casement He looked buoyant and joyous and full of laughter A gun was over his shoulder a fishing rod was in the other hand at his belt hung a brace of birds with the blood dripping on lo his leggings and across his back swung a little creel Greeba whisht he called again in a loud whisper and a third time he called her ihen though her heart smote her sore she could not but step forward and perhaps her very shame made her the more beautiful at that moment for her cheeks were rosy red and her round neck dropped and her eyes were shy of the morning light and very sweet she looked to the lad who loved her there Ah he said almost inaudibly and drew a long breath Then he made pretence to kiss here though so far out of reach and laughed in his throat After that he laid his gun against the porch and untied the birds and threw them down at the foot of the closed door I thought I would bring you these he said Ive just shot them Then youve not been to bed said Greeba nervously Oh thats nothing he said laugh ing Nothing for me Besides how could I sleep Sleep Why I should have been ridy to kill myself this morning if I could have slept last night Greeba Well You could never think what a glorious night it has been for me So youve had good sport she said feeling ashamed Sport he cried and laughed again Oh yes Ive had sport enough he said But what a night it was The happiest night of my life Every star that shone seemed to shine for me every wind that blew seemed to bring me a message and every bird that sang as the day was dawning seemed to sing the song of all my hap piness Oh it has been a triumphant night Greeba She turned her head away from him but he did not stop And this morning coming down from Bairule everything seemed to speak to me of one thing and that was the dearest thing in all the world Dear little river I said how happily you sing your way to the sea And then I remembered that before it got there it would turn the wheel for us at some day and so I said Dear little mill how merrily youll go when I listen to your plash and plunge with her I love beside me She did not speak and after a mo ment he laughed Thats very foolish isnt it he said Oh no she said Why foolish Well it sounds so but ah last night the stars around me on the mountain top seemed like a sanctuary and this morning the birds among the gorse were like a choir and all sang together and away to the roof their word rang out Greeba Greeba Greeba He could hear a faint sobbing Greeba Yes You are crying Am I Oh no No Jason not that I must go What I fool I am he muttered and picked up his gun Oh no dont say that Greeba Well Jason Im going now but Why Im not my own man this morning Im talking foolishly Well and do you think a girl doesnt like foolishness He threw back his head and laughed at the blue sky But Im coming back for you in the evening I am to get the last of my rafters on to day an when a building is raised its a time to make merry He laughed again with a joyous lightness and turned to go and she waved her hand to him as he passed out of the gate Then one two three four his strong rhythmic steps went off behind the elms and then he was gone and the early sun was gone with him for its brightness seemed to have died out of the air And being alone Greeba knew why she had tried to keep Jason by her side for while he was with her the temptation was not strong to break in upon his happiness but wnen he was io longer there do what she would should could not but remember Mich ael Sunlocks Oh what have I done that two brave men should love me she thought but none the less for that her heart clamored for Sunlocks Sunlocks Sunlocks always Sunlocks the Sunlocks of her childhood her girlhood her first womanhood Sun locks of the bright eyes and the smile like sunshine And thinking again of Jason and his brave ways and his simple manly bearing and his plain speech so - K yt SSJF tTaB strangely lifted out of itself that day Into words with wings she only told herself that she was about to break his heart and that to see herself do it would go far to break her own So sne decided that she would write to him and then slip away as best she could seeing him no more To be Continued Britains Profitable Death Duties The comprehensive grasp of the British death duties is further Illus trated by the latest decision of Brit ish courts levying these duties on the estate of the late William L Winans of the Baltimore family of that name who has now been held to have been an expatriated American for taxation purposes As he left over 112000000 and as the taxes under the graduated rate aggregate about 10 per cent the British treasury reaps over 1000000 under the decision English Honors for Mahas Captain A T Mahan of the United States navy the well known writer on naval subjects has the honor of being the recipient of the first Chesney Me Morial Medal of Great Britain It is In consideration of the three great works of which he is the author- The Influ ence of Sea Power on History The Influence of Sea Power Upon the French Revolution and The Lle ot Nelson that Captain Mahan has been deservedly selected for this high honor Harvard Men from Everywhere Harvards cosmopolitanism Is well il lustrated in the latest catalogue whicu shows that her students are drawn from no less than thirty nine of the forty five states as well as from Ari zona Oklahoma and the District of Columbia Hawaii Porto Rico the Philippines Cuba Japan the Canad ian provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick Kamchatka Great Britain France Germany Spain Russia Bul garia and Norway An Experts Opinion Prof N S Saler of Harvard univer sity a southern man who has made a special scientific study of the condi tion of the negroes of the south gives no favor to the pessimistic opinions that come from that section He thinks that me moral and intellect ual condition of the negroes is im proving and so far as social morals are concerned he regards the negro as on the whole less dangerous than whites of a like social grade Greek Professor a Private Soldier Dr Henry C Bunn professor of Greek and English literature in St Johns military school at Manlius N Y has enlisted as a private in the Twenty third regiment United States infantry now at Manila This is Prof Bunns third attempt to join the regular army He is a son of Rev A B Bunn D D rector of the Church Charity foundation in the diocese of Long Island Oar Ambassador in Society Ambassador Joseph Choate is going on a round of visits to various coun try houses in England and Scotland This seems to be the regulation thing for our ambassador at the Court of St James lor every autumn the peo ple of the nobility offer their most cordial hospitality to our distinguished representatives Lons Favorably Impressed Secretary of the Navy Long was in Denver on election day and had an op portunity to observe women voting here was nothing to jar the most-sensitive spectators he says On the con trary the tendency was to elevate and broaden rather than to degrade or im pair Tabby Is CO Henry Labouchere member of Par liament and editor of London Truth completed the 69th year of his life the other day He has been in politics since 1865 before which date he wa3 in the diplomatic service and lor some time attached to the embassy at Rome The Charitable Czarina It is interesting to learn that the czarina of Russia dispenses so much m charity as to require her to employ a special woman secretary bearing the title of directeress of the imperial char ities whose office is to disburse and oversee the employment of her gifts Cnba at Buffalo Cuba will be well represented at the Pan American exhibition at Buffalo General Wood has asked for plans of a building to be erected there This building will be in the Cuban style and every effort will be made to give a fine display of the resources of the is land Mrs Stanfoids New Philanthropy Mrs Leland Stanfords agents are negotiating to secure certain exposition buildings at Paris which could be tak en apart and erected upon ground al ready purchased in a pleasure suburb of Paris to serve as an American hos pital Irish Womans Gift to Bobs Subscriptions to the fund for a pre sentation to Lord Roberts from the women of Ireland have been sent in freely by all classes The gift is to consist of a star of the Order of St Patrick Lord Roberts Irish Bernhardts 82000 Bed Mme Sarah Befahardts bed in her Paris home coster before it wos fin ished th sum of 2000 The curtains are of the finest damask the sheets are silk the bedstead is a most elab orate piece of furniture and two little gold cupids are poised directly over the sleepers head Enormous School Expenditures The Board of Education of the city of New York asks the board of es timate and apoprtionment for 14 031325 for the getting of sites and putting up new school buildings In the coming yeas- This indicates how Immense are the expeditures of the city 1
